AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 2928, 18 September 1896, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS.

A writer in th'e Lice Stock Joimiaf, orr the display oi Shorthorns at the recent shot!’ o 5 the' Royal Agricultural Society of EcguJrid at Leicester, bewails the fact that the section was not satioftvWory. “ Too many of the classes/' he says, rite below the average merit of the corresponding closes of late years ; more than one or two are’ decidedly poor , but the fact which most forcibly detains the attention as we look round the classes, 1 or watch the daily promenade of the Shorthorns, is a change in the character of the breed." This deterioration, he hints, is the result of the growing tendency in favour of the infasfoWof Scottish Shorthorn blood into English heideV Hot that this in itself is a lad step; brif breeders are prone to run after fashionable p'e’drgreds. This craze fer fashion has been apparent before, and serious mischief has ensued. The reason of this has not been because the fashionable cattle were bad, but because their goodness, the goodness to which they owed their rise in public favour, Was allowed to Waste away in fatal breeding for fashionable pedigrees." The writer winds up tfitb an’ to use the Scotch strains with discrimination and’ judgment,’ not allowing the Scotch’ element to’ flood.out the good influences of tric’d old English strains of blood. . . The|subjoined extract from il*o National Provisioncr, Chicago, of 20th June, speaks badly for our colonial methods of dealing With stock. It mnst be confessed that there is a good deal of truth in the accusation that we in s tliaso colonies are archaic ini otrr methods,' but at' the same time wo cannot Hold ourselves' altogether responsible for not Carrying on’ the stock business on the most moderri plan.- The Prouiritnier says:—For serin o time past Australian tallow has been a menace to exports in the domestic arid we have only been able to get into the French market in the past month or so becariso our prices have been exceedingly low. Our Australian friends have even come into the domestic market, and this no doubt to a great extent accoxmte for the existing low prices. We do not fhmk, however, that this competition will bo ’ letting, or that it need bo feared much in the /utu'fe.' Strange as it may seem, the enormous oufplit of tallow in the colonies is not due to any advancement in the science of manipulating by-products, but is occasioned, on the contrary, by ignorance of economic methods and the overproduction of sheep. Such sheep when ■ irfrirkotable, either in consequence ofitheir condition’,’ or’ by reason of a glut, are sent by whole cariobkfe to what are termed “ boiling down " Works,* and the result of such wholesale tanking demonstrated in the enormous quantities of Australasian tallow always on the market, and always a factor in depressing prices. Then the Frovisioncr continues: Of course, the article is a good one, and why shouldn’t it bo when handled in the im* i provident manner to which we have referred ?’ . It is on account of this very improvidence that Wo say the competition in this product not last, for the proper, thorough, and economic handling of cattle and sheep in the coloriieb 8® vrell as in Argentina are questions noW absorbing much attention in those countries, as they did in the United States twenty l years ago. Wisdom is beginning to assert ' itself/ arid while there is necessarily much mourning ctf the footstool of past failure there is ample evidoricoof progress, and a disposition to modernise’ ate- well os to bring supply and demand riettrer to a parity. . And again:—"When these changes can be recorded as actual facts, there will be less occupation for “ boiling down " works, and less tallow oa the market. It might also be said bore that in the consumption of mutton much more fat is tlsod than m beef, and that in England arid other mutton-eating countries fully one quarter of the mutton consumed is fat. It is likewise to be noted as somewhat paradoxical that, while Americans will eat hog product, in which fat predominates, they have no use whatever for the rich nourishing fat from a joint of good roast beef* , ,/ii A European exchange baa the following :—But into a ditch alternate layers of weeds and lime, arid after a year has passed it will be found that the ditch contains a blackish mixed matter, possessed of good fertilizing powers. In Switzerland they use as a manure_-{or the meadows a kind of vegetable juice pro* ared as follows from weeds Make a large heap of from 3-if- to 5$ cwt. leave it to ferment, and stir it every eight days. When the weeds are turned yellow they are removed to a ditch, where they ate watered and mixed with following solution :—2.11b of sulphuric acid, 2*lb of hydrochloric acid, and 132 gallons of water. The bulk is turned about three or four times a week, and at the of a month there is obtained a vegetable juice, rich in hitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. To destroy wire worms, grubs, and other insect pests from potting soil for my carnations (writes a florist) I make up large square heaps of loam and manure fresh from the stable, and the two ferment sufficiently to evolve a heat that destroys any animal or vegetable life that may be contained in it. The loam is freshly cut, and in that condition contains a good deal of grass and heats without the manure. The ammonia arising from this fresh stable manure may also have a destructive action. At any rate, the troublesome pests are found to be dead when the heap is turned ever. It is advisable to turn over the heap while the heat is good, and thus place that which was outside within, otherwise a few grubs may escape. I have three cows to which I have fed ensilage eight years in succession, and, so far as I can see, writes a Rural New Yorker correspondent, the ensilage has hurt their teeth about as much as corn hurts hens’ teeth. These cows are from eleven to fifteen years old, and one of them, a Jereey-Holstein cross, has given, when fresh last January, over 60 pounds of milk per day. Their teeth are much better than cows’ teeth usually are at that age. It is high time that these hollowhorn, soak-tail, black-tooth ideas about ensilage were cast aside, and that every intelligent farmer who can raise a good crop of corn, and wishes to keep ten. or more cattle or their equivalent of sheep, had a silo. Fifty dollars’ worth of material and a few days’ time will provide one as good as the best. Beware of the costly ones; they do not usually give as good satisfaction as the cheap ones. A correspondent of an English paper has a new wrinkle in the management of bulls. Says he:—l wish to tell stockgrowing readers how I worked my bull without taking him out of his stall. A few years ago I had a fine Jersey bull three years old. He was kind, but at times when I took him out he was rather hilarious. I became suspicious of him ! as he had no ring in his nose, and ; thought I must, in some way, give him exercise. Finally I adopted the following plan :—I rolled into his stall, in front of him, a stone, nearly round, that weighed about 300 pounds. It seemed to be just what he wanted. He attacked it as he would another bull; he rolled it over and over; he went down on his knees and rubbed his head l against it, then up and went at it again. He had very slim horns, and he wore them off over an inch; he worked at it until he became thoroughly exhausted, and laid down to rest. Even after that, when he needed exercise, he would play with that stone. He had it for a year, and always exer* ciaad himself in that way. I had no trouble with him, and he kept his horns well worn off.

Professor Woodbridge, of the University of California, has been experimenting with steam as an insecticide. The tree to be treated is first covered with a canvas tent, and a jet of steam is then forced among the foliage at a temperature of 120 degrees. Ifhas been found that no damage results at a less temperature than 125 degrees. The experiments so far have been made on orange and lemon trees for the red and black scale, and are reported as very successful. The cost is from 2 cents, to 6 cents, per tree. If this treatment proves successful in future trials and can be relied upon, it will replace the hydrocyanic gas treatment now in use, and which costs from 50 cents to SI .30 cents per tree, and is a heavy burden on the orange growers. If the treatment proves successful on other plants, it may have a wide application, and by adding certain substances to the water or steam, the fumes may possibly be made still more destructive to pests with less injury to plants. It should be borne in mind that land exhausted by grain cropping is under no circumstances favourable to the growth of grasses—the rye grasses especially, although the clovers may thrive satisfactorily. Grasses ■ belong to the same natural order as wheat, oats and barley, and remove from the soil nearly the same constituents. If, therefore, rye grass is sown after cereals, the land, so far from obtaining the desired spell or rest, is still subject to continued exhaustion, mitigated by the substitution of feeding off by stock for the total removal of the constituents which occurs in the case of cereals, A soil which has been Impoverished before being laid down with seeds will give

but scanty herbage for a year or two at most, and should be broken up and improved by thorough cultivation and tho manuring of root crops that will repay tho immediate expenditure. After such a course of treatment the soil will bo fertile , and clean, and will afford a suitable seedbed for the best varieties ol grasses and clovers. A remarkable event took place id Messrs Henderson Bros/ paddock, Marton, last week. It appears that Mr A. ; Nitschke, who occupies a farm at Crofton, i was engaged in ploughing for Messrs lieridorsorx Bros.' He had three horses in the plorigh, and albseemod to work splendidly until about 4 o’clock, when one of tho horses pulled back in the harness, stopped suddenly, shc*>k himself, and foil. The harness was with all haste taken off tho animal, and this had hardly been done when another of the team foil In the same ay as the former. Both horses? died in tild dourstf of a few minutes, and Mr Nitschkd took the third away, leaving the others on the ground where they fell. Sfle'h a case as that of two horses working in tbs same plough falling and dying' together as these poor beasts did is most unusual. There Was a quantity of poisoned wheat lying i about, being full of strychnine, nnd it is possible they may have eaten somsr of it. The lose must b© a havy blow to- the owner* as tho horses were well worth .£2O , each, and Sir Nitschke deserves great sympathy. Tho next day Mr Wm. Cawood, thb well-known horse-doctor in Marton, proceeded to the scene and held a postmortem eri'atnination. Numerous farmers were present, anxious to hear the result. After examining tho horses, Mr Cawood could not clearly state what had caused the death of the first one, but ho believed that the cause had been hot fly. Mr 1 Cawood, however, intends to send the : stomach of this horse to tho anafyvst in : Wellington* Mr Cawood ascribed the death of the second horse to tho bursting of o blood-vessel, caused through his beins frightened at the first horse falling, anc struggling to got out of tho collar. The third horse was Uninjured, and there won no symptoms of the other horses being poisoned. —A dvocaic .